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Last Sunday, House Minority Leader John Boehner brought a copy of the nearly 2000-page House bill crafted by Democrats to his interview on CNN's State of the Union.

Washington (CNN) - The House of Representatives on Saturday night passed an amendment to pending health care legislation that prohibits federal funds for abortion services in the public option and in the insurance "exchange" the bill would create.

The vote passed 240-194.

A second amendment considered by the House, introduced by Minority Leader John Boehner, which would have substituted several sections of the health care bill dealing with insurance, did not pass. Legislators voted against the amendment 258-176.

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House Minority Leader John Boehner said Monday that he regretted having endorsed Dede Scozzafava.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The top Republican in the House said Monday that he regretted endorsing Dede Scozzafava, the former GOP candidate who dropped out of a special election to fill a vacant congressional seat in upstate New York.

"This lady really has an agenda that's different than most Republicans, House GOP Leader John Boehner. "She was out there promoting herself. We're doing everything we can to promote Doug Hoffman in this race, and we hope he wins."

Boehner and other House Republican leaders all lined up behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman after Scozzafava withdrew Saturday. On Sunday, Scozzafava endorsed Democrat Bill Owens.

Boehner dismissed the notion that the special election in New York was a reflection on the future of the Republican Party. "This race has a lot of unique circumstances," he said. "I have no concerns about the ability of moderates and conservatives to continue to work together."

“We’re in the middle, I think, of a political rebellion going on in America,” House Majority Leader John Boehner said on CNN’s State of the Union, ”And this rebellion is by people who really have not been actively involved in the political process and they don’t really care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. They want to see people who are going to stand up and protect the future for our kids and grandkids.”

Boehner also told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King that Republicans will have “a difficult road to walk to work with relatively new entrants into the political system to show them, that by and large, we are the party that represents their interests.”

But Boehner also tried to downplay the significance of Saturday’s surprise announcement by moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava who decided to bow out of a hotly contested three-way race in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

“This is a pretty unusual situation,” Boehner said of the decision by conservative Republican Doug Hoffman to run against Scozzafava on the Conservative Party ticket in Tuesday’s special election. “Clearly,” Boehner observed, [Scozzafava] would be on the left side of our party.”

Notwithstanding that GOP civil war that brewed in New York’s 23rd district until Scozzafava’s announcement Saturday, the leading House Republican said his party still casts a big, welcome tent to all those who would call themselves Republican.
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“We are going to have a proposal,” the Ohio Republican said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, “And I would hope that the [House] Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] will allow us to have a debate and a vote on our proposal.”

Boehner added that this party intends to take eight or nine different ideas for health care reform currently available on www.healthcare.gop.gov and craft them into a single bill that Republicans will propose an alternative to the Democratic bill unveiled last Thursday.

Boehner also laid out for CNN Chief National Correspondent John King some of the key attributes of the GOP plan. “We do not increase taxes, we do not cut Medicare and Medicaid and we do not have mandates on individuals or businesses.”

Boehner also had a number of criticisms of the Democratic bill debuted late last week.

“This not affordable,” Boehner said as he patted a copy of the Democratic health care bill, “What this is going to do is bankrupt America. It’s going to cost millions of Americans their jobs and cut benefits for seniors. This is not what the American people want. They want a more gradual approach to fixing our current system.”

Related: House Democrats unveil $894 billion health care bill

Boehner: Wilson resolution a 'diversion'.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Minority Leader John Boehner told CNN a resolution of disapproval against South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson is a "diversion" to help Democrats avoid talking about health care.

Many Democrats have attacked Wilson for yelling "you lie" during President Obama's address to Congress last week, and the House is expected to vote on a resolution Tuesday disapproving of the Republican lawmaker's conduct on Tuesday afternoon. Boehner called Wilson, who has since apologized, a "good man" and said that he was "thankful that the president accepted his apology."

"This tactic on the floor today is nothing more than a diversion so that they don't have to talk about their government run health care plan," Boehner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I just think we ought to be talking about what the American people sent us here to do, and that's to solve the issues they're concerned about."

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Wilson on Sunday described his loud retort to President Barack Obama's statement that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the Democrats' health-care bill as 'a town hall moment'.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday he would vote against any resolution admonishing Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst during the president's address to Congress on health care last Wednesday.

"Rep. Wilson has apologized to the president, and the president accepted his apology. Last Thursday, Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi said that she believed it was time to move on and discuss health care. I couldn't agree more, and that's why I plan to vote 'no' on this resolution," Boehner said in a written statement.

"Instead of pursuing this type of petty partisanship, we should be working together to lower costs and expand access to affordable, high-quality health coverage on behalf of the American people."

House Democratic leaders pledged to move a resolution of disapproval if Wilson failed to apologize on the House floor for breaking rules governing appropriate conduct on the House floor.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House adjourned last week for the annual summer recess, but Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, left behind a video for President Obama.

Boehner’s office will release a Web video Monday morning splicing together Obama’s comments about health care reform with footage from a 1980’s television commercial of an actor declaring, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.”

The Ohio Republican is seeking to promote the idea that Obama’s plan to have the federal government offer a health insurance option is bad policy.

“Like the old joke goes, President Obama isn’t a doctor, but he plays one on TV - giving Americans a discomforting glimpse of life under ObamaCare, with government leaders and bureaucrats dispensing medical opinions that are better left to doctors, medical professionals, and patients,” Boehner said in an email statement to CNN. “This is a lighthearted video, but it underscores a serious point that Congressional Democrats are going to hear throughout August as they travel outside of Washington: Americans want lower health care costs – not a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care that increases costs and lets Washington bureaucrats make decisions that should be made by doctors and patients.”

Updated with DNC response after the jump:
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(CNN) - Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner took aim at the Democrats' health care proposal Wednesday, hours before the president is set to address the matter at a prime time news conference.

Boehner, the house minority leader, laid out his view of several "myths" he expected to hear from Obama: "First he'll say, 'If you like your plan you can keep it,' but clearly under the [plan], the congressional budget office estimates 23 million Americans will be forced out of their private health insurance into a government run plan."

McConnell, the senate minority leader, disputed suggestions Repuplicans are agaisnt reforming the country's health care system.

"I can't find a single member who is not for trying to improve America's healthcare system," the Kentucky Republican said.

Both leaders also expressed concern with what they see as the president's rush to get a bill passed rather than addressing their concerns, and said they were willing to work with the White House on a bill on a slower timetable.

John Boehner on Wednesday called recent comments by Vice President Joe Biden 'the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The war of words between House Minority Leader John Boehner and the Democratic Party over the impact of President Obama's stimulus plan escalated Wednesday - with each side accusing the other of lying to the American people.

The Ohio Republican told reporters that Vice President Joe Biden's weekend comments that the administration had "misread" the extent of the economic crisis were "the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress."

"I found it also interesting over the last couple of days to hear the vice president... and the president mention the fact they didn't realize how difficult an economic circumstance we're in," Boehner said. "Now, this is the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress. I sat through those meetings at the White House with the president and the vice president, and trust me, there's not one person that sat in those rooms that didn't know how serious our economic crisis was.

Obama told NBC on Tuesday that "rather than say 'misread,' we had incomplete information."

"What I would say is that in some areas you're seeing the economic engine turn," Obama said in that interview. "But what we always knew was that a.) This recession was going to be deep; b.) It was going to last for a while."

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Sunday that the president's $787 billion dollar stimulus plan was taking too long to create jobs in the struggling economy.

(CNN) - A leading congressional Democrat and Republican both expressed disappointment Sunday with the pace of the government's economic stimulus program, but offered differing views on whether it was a good idea.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said allocating the $787 billion in the stimulus package pushed by President Barack Obama to create jobs was taking too long.

"We're disappointed," Hoyer, D-Maryland, told "FOX News Sunday." "We're looking at ways to get the money out more quickly."

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. John Boehner, said on the same program that the stimulus bill passed by Congress in February was flawed.

"You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs, when you say that's what the bill was for," Boehner, of Ohio, complained. Boehner said the bill only funds more government, rather than creating private sector jobs.
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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Sunday that the president's $787 billion dollar stimulus plan was taking too long to create jobs in the struggling economy.

(CNN) - A leading congressional Democrat and Republican both expressed disappointment Sunday with the pace of the government's economic stimulus program, but offered differing views on whether it was a good idea.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said allocating the $787 billion in the stimulus package pushed by President Barack Obama to create jobs was taking too long.

"We're disappointed," Hoyer, D-Maryland, told "FOX News Sunday." "We're looking at ways to get the money out more quickly."

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. John Boehner, said on the same program that the stimulus bill passed by Congress in February was flawed.

"You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs, when you say that's what the bill was for," Boehner, of Ohio, complained. Boehner said the bill only funds more government, rather than creating private sector jobs.
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Dems are hitting back at a new GOP Web video.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – On the day the June jobs report showed the U.S. labor market shedding 467,000 jobs, House Republicans released a tongue-in-cheek Web video featuring a bloodhound named "Ellie Mae" sniffing out stimulus jobs.

Narrated by Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, the clip shows the bloodhound "on the money trail" visiting AIG's headquarters in New York City and projects in Wisconsin and North Carolina supported by federal stimulus dollars. It was modeled on a campaign commercial run by the current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in his 1994 Kentucky Senate race.

House GOP Leader John Boehner poses with Ellie Mae at the end of the video. "She hasn't found any stimulus jobs yet, and neither have the American people," says Boehner. "It's time to stop runaway spending in Washington and help small businesses get the economy running once again. Hang in there, honey, we'll find 'em."

"This is a lighthearted web video, but the underlying point is no laughing matter," Boehner said in a written statement. "At a time when Americans are looking to Washington for leadership, the trillion-dollar 'stimulus' isn't working. Americans were promised the 'stimulus' would keep the unemployment rate from going above eight percent. It's now it's skyrocketing above nine percent. Where are the jobs?"

Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, wasn't amused by the video. "Looks like the hound couldn't track down any of the police officers, teachers or nurses who are working today because of the Recovery Act or the construction workers working on more than 1,900 highway projects already under way across the country."

Elshami also said the stimulus law still needed time to show results, and slammed the GOP: "Betting against the American economy is another fairly depressing political strategy from the House Republican Conference."

Boehner and other Republicans say the latest jobs report is an indication the stimulus plan has not worked.

(CNN) – Republicans are taking aim at their Democratic colleagues over the latest jobs report indicating unemployment has risen to 9.5 percent, calling it evidence the massive economic stimulus bill pushed by President Obama earlier this year has not worked.

"Today's employment report reminds us that spending, taxing, and borrowing with reckless abandon is no way to create more jobs, yet that is exactly what Democrats in charge of Washington have done all year long," House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement.  "Middle-class families and small businesses are hurting, and they're looking to Washington for real solutions that won't raise their taxes and drive future generations into even deeper debt."

The National Republican Congressional Committee also released a statement noting Obama administration officials once claimed the stimulus bill would contain the unemployment rate under 8 percent.

"Where are the stimulus-created jobs?" the NRCC asks.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Republican Leader John Boehner may win the Hill prize for participating in the best event over this congressional recess. Boehner played 18 holes with Tiger Woods and Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo at the Earl Woods Pro-Am golf tournament on Wednesday. The team finished their round 8 under par.

As he headed out to play at Congressional Country Club with Woods, Boehner tried to lower expectations about where he'd finish on the tournament's leaderboard. "Well, listen - I can be the Republican leader of the House, and we'll know about the golf course at the end of 18 holes."

The team played a "best ball" format for the charity event that precedes the AT&T National, the pro tournament hosted by Woods. The foursome, which also included Ton Dundon, CEO of Santander Consumer USA, was followed by huge crowds along the course, mostly straining to see Tiger Woods in action. But Boehner did show he could keep up with the golf star when he sank a 35 foot putt on the eighth hole for a birdie.

Woods will tee-off with GOP leader John Boehner Wednesday.

(CNN) - House Republican Leader John Boehner, a longtime golfer, will tee off with Tiger Woods and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo at tomorrow's Pro-Am charity golf tournament at the A T&T National.

The Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am tournament at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation and is named after Tiger Wood’s late father. Thomas Dundon, the President and CEO of Drive Financial and Santander Consumer USA will be the fourth player, according to Boehner’s spokesman.

Boehner's handicap is seven and a half.

"He's always been a big fan and a big player," Boehner's communications Director Kevin Smith told CNN, but noted that he's had some back problems over the last year. Boehner occasionally combines golfing and fundraising during Congressional breaks, but tomorrow's outing will support local DC youth organizations.

But the GOP leader isn't the only member of Congress spending some time on the course during the Congressional recess. House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn played in an earlier Pro Am tournament ahead of the AT&T National on Monday, according to his spokeswoman Kristie Greco.

Although Woods is scheduled to play with the House Republican leader, he's kept his political leanings close to the vest.

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Democrats spent much of the week tweaking the climate change and energy bill in order to secure the support of wavering colleagues, with the alterations being placed in a 301-page amendment which was added to a nearly 1,200 page bill. Such legislative horsetrading is commonplace, but what upset the Republicans was that the amendment wasn't released until 3:09 am Friday morning.

Acting in protest, Boehner took to the House floor and began talking. And talking. And talking.

"This is the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives. Right here. This bill," Boehner, R-Ohio, thundered.

He then pulled out the 301-page amendment and began reading.

"I didn't get past the first page, where on line 5, 'strike 1992 and insert 1988' and on line 13, 'strike 1992 and insert 1988,'" he drolly read. "What is the impact of this day change?"

In all, Boehner spoke for one hour.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The top Republican in the House of Representatives is using Friday's unemployment report to slam President Obama's economic agenda.

Less than an hour after the Department of Labor released its monthly employment report showing unemployment rising to 9.4 percent, House Minority Leader John Boehner released a statement criticizing the Obama administration's record on job creation.

Full Boehner statement:

"Today's unemployment rate is the highest in more than a quarter century, and it's another reminder of how Washington is hanging middle-class Americans out to dry. More than 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs this year, and what have the Democrats in charge of Washington given them? A trillion-dollar 'stimulus' that isn't producing jobs immediately, as the Administration promised, and that Vice President Biden admits is ripping off the American people. Another $400 billion spending bill loaded with 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks. And bailouts that reward irresponsible behavior and bad business decisions. These policies are harming middle class families when they can least afford it and adding to the massive debt inherited by future generations.

"There is a better way. Doubling down on the Democrats' plans to tax more, spend more, and borrow more from our children and grandchildren is not the right answer to this economic crisis. Republicans have offered better solutions to create more jobs, curb spending, cut taxes, rebuild savings, and control the debt, and we have reached out to our Democratic counterparts to work on these policies in a constructive way. I urge Democrats in Congress and the Administration to finally follow through on their promises of bipartisan cooperation."

Boehner said he was concerned the president seemed to 'place equal blame on the Israelis and the Palestinians.'

(CNN)–House Republican leader John Boehner on Thursday praised the tone of President Obama's address in Cairo but slammed the president's remarks on Israel and Palestine, and on engagement with Iran.

"I think the president delivered a thoughtful and optimistic speech, but I do have some concerns about some things that were mentioned in the speech," he said.

Boehner said he was concerned the president seemed to "place equal blame on the Israelis and the Palestinians."

"The Israelis have the right to defend themselves," he said "....Because Hamas is a terrorist organization, they have been funded by the Syrians and the Iranians, and I just don't think the Israelis deserve to be put into the same playpen with terrorists."

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